Adventure
by Breaking the Dawn
Summary: Tearing at the edge of his mind, the secrets of his best friend, someone who has only ever given him kindness. The other side, the happiness of his siblings, the ones he's grown up with, raised, and has only ever felt something genuine for them. That, or his depression getting the best of him.
1. Chapter 1

_Tic, tok, tic, tok, tic, tok…_

The noise rang in his ears. The only thing that didn't let him notice the sound of car horns and yelling outside. The tick of his own mind-clock, counting minutes just to see how late the escort was. Nothing would break his dream state other than the escort's bark. Not even the wails of his siblings echoing off the metal walls of the watertower.

 _Speaking of-_ He let his gaze travel through the room, but his siblings weren't to be found. _Hmp._ He sighed, turning back to the entrance. The car horns of afternoon traffic stinging his ears now out of his dream state. With a small whimper of shock and pain, he focused out his senses. Still nothing. No mice twitched grass and no hunters to catch them. Only cars standing still on roads.

"Of course…they all must be sunbathing." He said to himself.

"Who are you talking to?" the voice scared him.

He turned around to the face of his sister. Her eyes narrow with curiosity. "You, now."

"Yakko." She growled, "Who are you talking to?"

"That's no way to talk to me, Dot. And you don't need to know who it was."

She sighed, glancing at the door then to her brother again. "Alright. Why isn't that person here yet? It's already been like… I dunno… three hours?"

Yakko shrugged, "Sunbathing…?"

Dot took a gasp of air to speak, but a crash interrupted her. A second later, their other sibling, Wakko, appeared next to Dot. His violin in his hand behind his back. A nervous smile crossed his face, "I-I'm good! I'm alright."

Yakko's ears fell back and his eyes widened. With a sigh, he checked his brother. _No marks around neck. Good._ His ears went back up.

" _I'd like to think he was like the script. This reserved pacifist… it would be a relief from all the fighters we have here."_

The voice rang in Yakko's mind. A female voice with a hard edge and very tiny fragment of county accent. Yet behind the mask of a sixteen-year-old, the knowledge of many years before her time. Times bathed in shadow never to be found.

Yakko was vaguely aware of his siblings staring at him, wondering what would happen in his mind to make his breath stagger into only shallow gasps. He shook his head, clearing it, and looked at his siblings again. He tilted his head a bit, acting innocent that nothing happened. Nothing _had_ happened. He was just imagining _her_ voice sending a message.

"She should be here in a minute." He forced excitement into his voice, trying to reassure his siblings. They didn't look very glad about it. Yakko stifled a sigh, "Just imagine living in a forest. There's always fresh air, and basically an endless supply of food. It's never cold here, so the prey doesn't hibernate- I don't think…" he added to himself.

Dot and Wakko looked at eachother. "I can't imagine eating mice and stuff." Dot spat at him.

"And no one else is gonna be there. It's just the escort." Wakko added, "Who is the escort by the way? You haven't said her name."

Thinking for a moment, he replied. "Secret. Her name is Secret."

The two glanced at eachother again before tilting their heads.

"That it?" Dot asked him, a bit of sass flowing into her voice.

"I won't really trust her if you don't say anything." Wakko added to her statement, telling their same thought.

With a twitch of his ear and turning back to the watertower entrance, Yakko told them, "You'll learn whatever _she_ wants you to know. As far as you should be concerned, Secret is a sixteen-year-old with a family and others she needs to take care of in the forest… and today she's accepting us." He added after a moment.

Yakko could sense a wave of fear from his siblings as claws scrapped on metal and a loud howl sounded through the door. With a glance at Wakko and Dot though narrow eyes, Yakko opened the door.

A brown dog sat outside the door, with a more orange chest and tailtip, darker paws, and floppy black ears. With a nod to Yakko, she stepped in. The clicking of her claws echoed on the walls as she walked in the silence. She looked at Wakko and Dot, and with a small smile and twitch of her whiskers, she bowed her head to them. Yakko stood next to her, and she perked her head back up to look at the siblings.

With another look at the dog, Yakko answered their next question: _"Who the hell is this dog and why is she here?"_ "This is Secret." He told them, cracking a small smile of laughter at their reaction.

"Yakko that is a dog." Dot told him.

"I thought it was a human." Wakko had said in only a whisper.

With a scolding look at Wakko, Dot retorted, "Who would name their kid 'Secret'?"

He shrugged, walking up to her and knelling down to her level. Wakko stuck out his hand for her to sniff it, but she only growled and flicked her tail in response.

"I already know you're a good person, Wakko. I don't need your scent to revive old memories- I do that perfectly well on my own." With that, she put her head on his chest.

Wakko's eyes were wide with shock at the talking dog. He pushed her off him, looking into her eyes, "You're that dog!"

"What?" Dot asked coming up to them. Yakko's smile faded. Secret looked straight back at him, her eyes sparkled as she realized what he was talking about.

"Of course… and I trust you haven't done anything… _stupid_?" She bared her teeth to show her fangs.

Wakko nervously smiled. "I fell earlier, but I wasn't trying _that._ "

Secret nodded, then looked at Dot, and bowed her head to her again. No words needed to be said, Secret was obviously proud of how his sister had turned out. With another look around all three of them, she tilted her head toward the door, and started padding toward it. The three followed, Yakko close to the dog, Dot a bit behind, and Wakko trailing in amazement.

Slowly, they climbed down the ladder. Secret jumped off the last few steps, and sat waiting for the three to meet her. Yakko reached her first, waiting on the springy grass.

"So Aurora does watch your skies." Secret was staring up at the dark purple and orange sky, the first few stars in the shape of eyes. Yakko looked up as well, but made no movement. Once Wakko and Dot got down, they started the journey to the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

Secret stopped at the edge of the street, her ears pricked. The forest lay just behind one last road. Secret's fur started to stand on end, her eyes wide. With a glance back at the three, she ran off toward the trees, Warners following. Her ears laid flat, her tail streamed out, and her paws barely touched the soft grass underfoot.

After the run, they ran into a lake, the lake where the studio's mink, Minerva, lived. A golden retriever stood over a beagle, blood dripping down from a place under her eye. Another blue-gray dog stood in front of them, in a battle position.

"What is going on here?!" Secret growled at the dogs, baring her teeth.

The beagle looked up at her, "Dusty is on his way. We've got this."

"That one-eyed thing?" The blue-gray retorted in a strange accent.

Secret's ears stood up. "Newt." She realized, looking him over. "You're still trying to do some inter-species breeding shit with that mink, aren'tcha?" she snarled.

"Aren't you supposed to fight with claws and teeth?"

"I'll fight with whatever gets to the enemy." She growled at him, claws seeming to sparkle in the sunlight. "That mink is _dead._ She just happened to be killed by the one-eyed wonder. At least Dusty has a brain."

Newt's expression changed to sadness. He tucked his tail and lowered his head.

"You know the drill. Get of the territory, these are no longer shooting grounds… yadda, yadda, yadda… get the hell of our land." The retriever said before giving out a large bark.

With that, Newt ran off. The retriever looked at the Warners, "They've known you for five minutes, and this is their first time hearing you swear. Better get used to it." She added to the Warners after a moment. The beagle stood up and walked next to Dot, sniffing her tail.

"This is Macie and I'm Sunny." The retriever told them.

Macie sat up on her haunches, "S-so which are you?" she asked Dot, "Yakko, Wakko or Dot?"

Dot seemed offended by her question. Her fur bristled. "Dot, of course, the only female name."

Macie fell on her forepaws again, walking off into bushes. "Y'think I could tell?"

Sunny's eyes narrowed at Dot, her claws extending into the soft ground. "You scared her."

Dot only stared back. "She's too small to live here." She murmured after a moment.

Sunny's eyes widened, hackles standing up. "You try telling that to mothers!" She crouched down, ready to pounce at her, "You try tellin' that to _newborn pups_! If you tell'em that, they'll go jump in the lake and kill 'em'selfs!" She ran in the same way as Macie.

Secret looked at Dot, flecks of hate in her gaze. She clenched her teeth, growling, "I'm expecting pups, so _shut your mouth_. If _you_ wanna live here, you'll shut your yap, if a mother has pups and they kill themselves 'cuz of you?" He laughed a bit, claws sinking into the soft ground. "I'll rip out your belly _myself._ "

Secret padded off as well, waving her fluffy tail for the Warners to follow. Wakko quickly followed, Yakko and Dot hung back.

Dot was terrified at the thought of who seemed like such a clam dog to murder her.

Yakko wrapped his tail around Dot's, "She won't kill you with me watching. But, you don't mess with a suka and her pups. C'mon."

He walked after them, Dot only following from hating the thought of becoming lost. The image flashed through her mind. The brown dog pinning her to the ground by her shoulders, an unreadable expression, then she brought up her claw, and scored it down her stomach. Blood poured from the wound, as she took staggering breaths, darkness nipping the edges of her vision.

Secret's eyes flashed blue, then she whispered, "I warned you."

Dot snapped back to reality. Yakko was staring at her. "Her eyes won't go blue, Dot."

Dot stared back, how dare he read her thoughts? How could he read her thoughts? "The hell are you yappin' about?"

Yakko walked on, turning away from her. "Oh, nothing, nothing. Just the fact the only time Secret's eyes were blue was when she was pupped. So were yours, by the way."

"What?" Dot followed behind him, the steps of the Escort and Wakko were stomped into the grass. "Yakko, what are you even saying?"

"Well, I mean… yours were more of a gray-blue than what Wakko's are. Then they changed to amber like mine. Strange as well, neither of our parents had blue eyes." He rambled on, staring at the ground. Dot just stared at him. "If I remember, our birth mother had green-brown eyes and our father had amber, I guess Wakko got lucky with recessive, we're just stuck with dominant."

Dot sighed, Yakko glanced at her. "Why are you rambling? You're worrying me, Yakko."

"Just trying to live my name, don't mind me…"

"…Yakko…"

"I never live up to it, anyway."

"Yakko, really, what's gotten into you? You're scaring me!"

Yakko didn't respond, he just kept walking through the woods. Dot was also silent. She was confused more than anything. The image of the brother she knew was so split and blurred, she couldn't tell fake from real. One moment he was just silent, the next rambling about a tiny detail of something stupid.

The studio she had grown up with had always showed him as an all-or-nothing kind of guy. She couldn't understand why they changed him so much. They got her spot-on and they were pretty close to Wakko.

It just seemed so strange for him to fit into that fake persona. But, if that's what he wanted, she was fine. She could take anything her siblings threw at her.

She'd gone through enough unwilling shit with them already.


End file.
